The Crown Netlifx Series: Fountain Pen Sightings

[sanjinp]

Living in Germany I have no idea about that series.....perhaps it will show up here next year, if it is and stays popular. Often enough we get an older English series.

Father Brown, The Midsummer Blues Murders, Upstairs-Downstairs and so on.

I don't watch much TV....history, archeology and boxing. The ones about the Tudors were good.

You can watch it in Germany now, but only on Netflix.

[sail1942]

I noticed that the queen writes with a pen in a very upright position.

[GutSchrift]

This show should really be subtitled "All My Fountain Pens." We've been watching and just finished up the first two seasons. There are least one or two fountain pens in each episode. It's kind of exciting. And yes I spotted Churchill's Pelikan which didn't really make any sense at all!

 

What I've seen on the Crown, unlike Call the Midwife, is that the pens while mostly all vintage, are not always "right" for the period. In another great show that was on the BBC, Call the Midwife, viewers saw the evolution of writing instruments the characters used pretty clearly.

[Jerome Tarshis]

I was alive and reading newspapers during and after World War II, and I'm not sure I understand that Winston Churchill would have seen any irony in using a Pelikan fountain pen. But it may be that heads of state have ideas (or are believed to have ideas) not shared by ordinary people who want a good product.

 

From both reading and personal acquaintance with magazine journalists, I can say that photographers went right on using Rolleiflexes and Leicas and Contaxes without regard to Germany's being an enemy state. A good product is a good product.

 

There were Americans who for a time hesitated after the war to buy a German or Japanese car. (Well, immediately after the war Japanese products were thought to be badly made. That perception changed, to put it mildly.)

 

But cameras? No. And fountain pens may have belonged to a similar category. Nor do I remember people staying away from Italian films or other cultural products after the war because of disliking Fascism.

 

On a somewhat related theme, FPN is repeatedly told that Che Guevara wrote with a Parker 51. He was hardly a well-wisher of what he saw as American imperialism, but that didn't keep him from using a good American pen. And I suspect that Indian nationalists before and after 1947 did not see very much irony about using English fountain pens.

[tinta]

Omigosh, now I have to rewatch the series.

 

And topic of this thread is brilliant.

 

:-D

 

Debbie

Trying to stop the action, to be able to identify various FPs on The Crown season #1 & #2 drove me nuts.

The two series are worth a re-watch.

Enjoy.

tinta

[Driften]

Now season 3 is out....

[debraji]

I just watched "The Crown" Season 3 Episode 4, and near the end of the episode, the Queen was using a glorious fountain pen. It would be easy to identify if one were familiar with the pen: the camera lingered on her capping the pen in closeup. It was a rusty orange with, I think, a herringbone pattern: a substantial pen with gold furniture. Conway Stewart? Modern or vintage? I don't know at all, but would love to know if someone else does.

Edited December 3, 2019 by debraji

[Bookman]

 

I believe this is the one.

[mariom]

I saw this last night and planned to go back and have a close look, but didn't get around to it. While watching, I thought there was something quite distinctive about the clip, and there's a shot which briefly shows it in full. It's definitely not a CS clip.

[Olya]

It's a Parker Challenger Herringbone Red

http://www.inkwell-pens.com/shop/product/406/PARKER-ROYAL-CHALLENGER-Red-Herringbone-Fountain-Pen-and-Pencil-Set-Boxed-1930s

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/dxy7zi/help_me_identify_elizabeths_pen_from_season_3_ep4/

[ItsMeDave]

It's a Parker Challenger Herringbone Red

http://www.inkwell-pens.com/shop/product/406/PARKER-ROYAL-CHALLENGER-Red-Herringbone-Fountain-Pen-and-Pencil-Set-Boxed-1930s

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/dxy7zi/help_me_identify_elizabeths_pen_from_season_3_ep4/

That's a very nice pen.

[Calabria]

Prince Charles has my pen case ... Sonnenleder ... in one scene. Not chronologically correct, but a nice touch.

[zorbski]

I thought I saw Thatcher using a Montblanc, either a 220 or 320.

[sanjinp]

Some of the fountain pens from Crown are being auctioned at Bonhams, including the Parker Challenger Herringbone Red:
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bonhams/catalogue-id-bonham10765/lot-a1c47632-5f8f-409e-9480-b0f300d086d6

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bonhams/catalogue-id-bonham10765/lot-b21e1ed0-fe5c-4f41-aa5d-b0f300d11332

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bonhams/catalogue-id-bonham10765/lot-a8a998d9-f42d-4e70-859d-b0f300d16b68

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bonhams/catalogue-id-bonham10765/lot-3ec2fd2d-ff30-432f-b9e1-b0f300d0b1d6

 

What is disappointing is that they also obviously also used Jinhao fountain pens.
One would think that one of the English producers (Onoto, Conway Stewart, Yard-O-Led) would gladly volunteer their pen if only they asked (or even Montblanc), would be a nice promotion for them. It wouldn't have been a blatant product placement, those in the know would have spotted it.
Considering that, other spotting of the pens like Pelikan or Montblanc in the series were probably private pens from the actors and actresses.